Maybe there's something there
by SaraTheSpy
Summary: When the BAU discover that the last victim of a serial killer they're after is a CIA agent, the team will have to work with CIA director Sara Reese to find the unsub. Then, Gideon asks her to stay for one more case, and since she and Hotch already know each other from the past, things get a little complicated between them.
1. The woman that took secret karate lesson

**Summary:** When the BAU discover that the last victim of a serial killer they're after is a CIA agent, the team will have to work with CIA director Sara Reese to find the unsub. Then, Gideon asks her to stay for one more case, and since she and Hotch already know each other, things get a little complicated between them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds but Sara Reese is of my own creation. This is my first fanfiction so please feel free to comment.

Chapter 1- The woman that took secret karate lessons

The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

The team was informed about the discovery of another body and headed straight to the crime scene, which was the dead woman's house. Her name was Lily Miller. She lived alone in a detached house, in a small neighborhood, just like the other five victims of the unsub the team was after.

Hotch was the first to arrive at the house, and when the team came, he had some very confusing things to show them. First of all, the woman wasn't raped. She was killed, but she wasn't found tied on her bed, instead she was in the kitchen. The way she was murdered was also different. She wasn't strangled, she was hit with a glass bottle to the back of her head. In fact, the only thing that connected this crime to the previous ones was her appearance and past: tall, short brown hair, lived alone, divorced with children and parents that were either dead or lived far away.

"There are signs of struggle" Hotch pointed out the weirdest thing of all.

"What? Wasn't she supposed to be just a shop assistant? How did she know how to fight?" Morgan asked.

"And if she did know how to fight, why did the unsub choose her?" Reid finished his colleague's question. "He was supposed to be choosing easy victims. It's been two weeks since the last kill, this period is more than enough for him to watch her and find out whether she was an appropriate victim or not."

"We can ask her colleagues and friends about her. Maybe then we'll find a way to explain how and why this happened. I'll go check with Reid" Hotch said.

"And if she wasn't raped, that means the unsub entered the house at night, as usual, but didn't leave early in the morning as he did all the other times, so maybe he left witnesses behind. Maybe he was forced to make a mistake." Gideon said. "I'll ask around later with Morgan."

Hotch and Reid went to the shop Lily Miller worked at. It was a small shoe shop in the neighborhood, where only the victim and two other women worked. Each of them interviewed one of the women.

"She was sweet, always ready to help the customers… I could never imagine her as someone who would know how to fight." Jane Wilson said to Hotch, genuinely surprised when he told her that her colleague had actually had a real fight.

"Did she talk about her family?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer. That is, if it was the same unsub.

"No. She was divorced, and her son lives in Los Angeles. Her parents are dead."

Of course she was. All of them were.

"Did she have any friends?"

"Only me and Karen. We were very close, and she never mentioned having any other friends apart from us two."

The other woman, Karen Smith, said nothing more interesting that what Jane had said. The two agents gave them their phone numbers in case there was something else they forgot to tell them. Then, the team gathered at the headquarters to talk about how they were going to proceed with this strange case, that got even more confusing as they continued investigating.

"Witnesses saw a man dressed in black, around 6'3'' tall. They also said he walked with a limp." Morgan informed the team about their discoveries.

"It's highly possible that Miller injured him during the fight." Gideon said.

"We're lucky." JJ commented. "That will help us narrow down the list a bit" She was the one, along with Penelope, that worked on the list of suspects, and there were almost 10,000 of them until now.

"So, she matches the description of the other five victims, nobody describes her as someone who knows how to fight, yet we know she fought." Emily summarised. "It just doesn't make sense."

"She could be taking secret karate lessons" Morgan said with sarcasm.

Then, after two minutes of complete silence during which all of them tried to find a way to explain the case, Hotch's phone rang. A little bit later, he hung up and looked at them.

"I just found an explanation, and you're not going to like it."


	2. A new team member

**I want to say a very big thank you to the people that favorited and followed! :)**

Chapter 2- A new team member

I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, Okay.

-Madonna

"I just found an explanation, and you're not going to like it." Hotch announced.

"What? You found out where she took her secret karate lessons?" Morgan continued with the sarcasm, because he couldn't even imagine what was really going on.

"Well… Yes. She took her lessons at the CIA."

"What?" Emily exclaimed. "You mean she was an agent?"

"Yes. And she was undercover."

"That explains everything." Reid said.

"What was the thing that we weren't going to like?" Gideon asked.

"The woman on the phone… She's the director of the CIA. She'll be working with us." Hotch replied.

"The director of the CIA? Since when do directors handle those kinds of cases?" JJ wondered.

"Do you know her?" Reid asked.

"I've worked with her twice, long before she became director." Hotch replied. The team wanted to know more about her. She was going to be their new team member, and knowing what kind of person she was would be very good. "Well… She's cold, abrupt, bossy and stubborn. Not exactly the person you would describe as kind-hearted." He didn't mention that he was impressed by her leadership skills and the way she could read minds as good as any of the people that were now sitting with him around the table. He wasn't exactly the person to praise someone else like that, and he really did hate her. After all, he had a reputation.

"That reminds me of someone else we know" Emily said. Yes, he certainly had a reputation.

"Wow! Really?" Penelope yelled excitedly when JJ informed her that the victim was an underover agent and that the director of the CIA was going to work with them. "Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"We will have the chance to learn if Diana's death was really an accident!"

"Penelope, you've tried it once before, and it didn't work. And she won't tell you. Hotch said she's not the most pleasant type of person."

"Let's hope he's wrong"

JJ sighed, knowing that her friend wasn't going to give up on this second chance so easily.

About an hour later, they heard a knock on the door, and there she was. The director of the CIA was standing right in front of them, wearing a suit with a tie. That was the first thing about her that stood out. The other one was her height, but apart from that, there was nothing impressive. She wasn't very beautiful or attractive, and she was still relatively young. And there was that scar under her left eye…

 _She's exactly the same as eight years ago_ he thought. _The same unfeeling spy that thinks she controls everything._

 _He hasn't changed at all_ she thought. _The same annoying FBI agent that thinks he can scare everyone with his expressionless stare._

She cast a short glance towards Hotch and sat down. After the "good morning" part, they got down to work. First, they explained the case to her.

"Our unsub enters the houses at night, rapes and torures women all night, and leaves early in the morning without being seen, after killing them. All of them were found tied on their beds, strangled. All except for one." Hotch summarised the case. "We think he chose them because they reminded him of his mother. All of the victims were tall, with brown hair and green eyes, divorced with children and parents that lived somewhere far away, or were dead. He probably felt like he was punishing his mother for hurting him somehow."

"How many suspects do we have?" Reese wanted to know.

"Agents Jareau and Garcia are working on narrowing down the list. We'll have the results very soon. Now, how many details can you tell us about agent Young's persona?" Anne Young was the real name of Lily Miller.

"She was supposed to be divorced and her parents were dead. She was just an average woman, someone nobody would suspect, and of course it was her job not to display any signs of knowing how to fight." Of course, there were many other details, but Anne's mission was irrelevant now, since she was no longer there to carry it out.

While they waited, Sara Reese went through the files of the six crimes. Some minutes later, JJ returned and informed them there were sixty eight suspects. They all started examining the files, but since it was late in the evening, they went home after a while.

"Go home and take some rest" Hotch advised them. "I'll stay and I'll let you know if I find something."

Reese didn't leave the room. "I'm staying" she just informed him. It wasn't a request.

He didn't answer, after all he knew that she wasn't going to leave no matter what he said. Nobody else had ever stayed with him studying case files all night, which made him think that maybe she cared. Maybe she wasn't just a cliché, cold-hearted spy.

"I may have found something here" the director of the CIA finally said, around 6:00 in the morning. "James Brown, age 32, 6'2'' tall, went to the hospital multiple times when he was young but they weren't able to prove it was abuse, nor did he talk to the police. Those visits to the hospital started after his parents got a divorce. He was an only child. AND he went to the hospital this morning with a stab wound to his stomach."

"How bad was he?"

"Not very bad. His wound was treated and he left immediately after that."

"Which means he's now free. I'm calling the team"

"I think we can do this on our own."

She called her people at the CIA headquarters and had them find where Brown worked. It turned out that he worked at a local garage. The two of them went there immediately after sending a message to Gideon to let him know what they were going to do.

"James Brown? FBI. We want to ask you some questions." Hotch said.

"What did I do?"

"You tell me." Reese demanded.

"But I didn't do anything!"

"So you don't know what happened to Lily Miller."

"Who is that? I haven't even heard about her before!"

Before Reese could tell him that she thought Brown was being completely honest, Hotch got a phone call from Penelope, telling them they got the wrong man. There was another victim, however now there was one little difference: she was alive.

They headed to the hospital, where the rest of the team explained the situation to them.

"She was found unconscious, tied on her bed this morning. It seems the unsub tried to strangle her and left her there, thinking she was dead. Her mother lived in D.C. but was about to visit her this morning. She was the one that found her daughter."

"So agent Young's case became a stresser for the unsub and he did his last job in a hurry, with a much shorter period of time between the two attacks, and less organized" Reese concluded.

"His injury was also a factor." Reid added. "But, yes, due to his recent failure he needed a new victim soon. He made a mistake, now we're going to be one step ahead."

Only Hotch and Reese waited at the hospital for Mandy Baker to wake up. When she did, they told her mother they wanted to talk to her.

"Mrs Baker, I know this is going to be hard, but we'd like to ask your doughter a few questions" Reese said, surprising Hotch with her kindness. Mandy was an adult, they weren't obliged to ask her mother before talking to her. Yet for once, he saw the CIA agent being something else apart from abrupt, and he wondered what else might be lying there, under the surface.

"She went through all this, and now you want to make her relive it…"

"We're only doing this to help her and other potential victims, she is the only one that can help us catch the assailant." Hotch assured the mother.

"Ok, but don't take too long."

"We'll do as fast as we can." Reese promised.

They entered the room and saw the young woman crying silently. Reese sat on a chair next to her bed.

"Mandy?" she whispered softly. "I'm agent Sara Reese, C.I.A. Could you answer a few questions?"

She wiped her tears and looked at the older woman.

"What do you want to learn? I've already said the story to the police and to the doctors." Her voice sounded broken while she tried to hold back her tears.

"I know how you feel, Mandy. But it's important that we catch this man. Only you can help us."

"I… I had come home after work, it was around 22:00, and I went to the kitchen to make something to eat. He came a few minutes later and forced me to lead him to my bedroom. I remember his… his dark green eyes… looking at me…"

That's when she started crying uncontrollably, with the memory of those eyes still in her mind, a memory that was never going to go away. They decided that even if there was something else, she wouldn't be able to tell them, so they left.

" _I know how you feel, Mandy"_ Hotch remembered those words, and he wondered whether it was just another way of comforting Mandy, or something much more serious. _No_ he thought _she's never felt anything. She wouldn't know._

They now had only fifteen suspects with green eyes, and nothing to proceed on. Until Emily had an idea.

"He watched all the previous victims for a long time before learning all those details about them. But now, he had only one day to find a new victim. There was no way he could learn everything about her in 24 hours, unless he asked her."

"And how could he have asked her about her life?" Gideon wanted to know what his colleague had thought.

"He was her psychologist" Reid showed them Michael Johnson's file.

After doing a quick search, Garcia confirmed their theory. All the seven women that were attacked, went to the same psychologist.

"But… If he was their psychologist, it means that he knew the information from the first day they got into his office in every case. So why did he watch them?" JJ expressed the question everyone had in their mind.

"Because he wanted all the details." Reese answered. "And one session is never enough."

"This guy is a sadist" Emily finished the sentence.

This was the most possible explanation. And as time passed, the criminal was already out there, searching for his next victim. They'd better be right, or another woman would be found dead very soon.


	3. Undercover

Chapter 3- Undercover

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean. If a few drops of the ocean are dirty, it doesn't make the ocean dirty.

-Mahatma Gandhi

They had found who the unsub was, but catching him was an entirely different story.

"We actually don't have any proof he's the unsub" Reid pointed out. "Since the victim was too shocked to describe him, he could just claim he's innocent."

"Let's be honest, guys, he's a psychologist. Most people around here probably respect him, he'll find a good lawyer and he'll never confess" Morgan said.

"We have to see him commit the crime." Gideon noted.

"No, we can't let him hurt another woman." Hotch objected. "But we can give him a victim to attack, and when he will, we'll be there to catch him. He's desparate, he's going to go after the first one he sees."

"I look like the victims he prefers, I'll do it." Reese interrupted him. "Now get me ready because time is running out!"

"Do what she said!" Hotch told them when he saw they were waiting for his approval. He thought she was bossy, but then again, this was the exact same thing he would have said if she hadn't cut in.

"Just don't start punching him the moment he enters the house." Hotch told her when the rest of the team left the two of them alone.

"Look, Hotchner, I know you don't like me, but the last time this happened, the case was completely different. I've been doing this job for 28 years, I'm perfectly able to do it."

"You'd better be"

"You'd better not threaten me" she replied coldly and left the room.

She went to Johnson's office and just pretended to be someone else. She was perfect at it, it was what she had been doing her whole life. The man seemed to be very interested from the moment he saw her and, since she was a little bit taller than him, she needed to look as vulnerable and weak as possible.

"What case were you talking about?" Gideon asked Hotch while they watched. He had overheard him talking to Reese before.

"It was the second time I worked with her, we were after a serial killer and we went to his house to arrest him. He started running, and when she caught him, she broke his nose and a couple other bones."

"And you want to tell me you've never done the same? That you were never tempted to do it?" After a long silence that confirmed his words, Gideon asked "Is it true that you don't like her?"

"The only thing I know is that she doesn't like me." he avoided the question.

"You know, I don't want an answer to this. Just don't lie to yourself. I saw you two working together yesterday, and if there's something there"

"No, there's nothing there" he cut in.

"If you think so… I'm just telling you what I saw"

After the session, which lasted for over an hour, Sara went to the house and waited. She waited until she heard him enter from the back door and aproach her. Johnson forced Sara to lead him to the bedroom, and he pushed her towards the bed. As he made a move to undress her, she reminded herself that she had to play her part for just a little longer…

After two minutes that seemed like forever, the team entered the house and arrested the criminal. They returned to the headquarters and put him in an interrogation room.

"Hotchner?" Reese said his name while walking behind him.

"What?" He turned around to face her. He thought he'd get rid of her the moment they arrested the criminal, but no. She had to make his life difficult even after that.

"I want to ask Johnson a few questions" She hated having to ask for his permission, basically because she knew they'd end up fighting. They had worked together three times, and the only thing they did was end up figting.

She opened the door of an empty interrogation room and they got in. If they had to argue, at least they could be somewhere private.

"The case is sealed. What else do you think you can find?" He added some irony to the word "you". Seriously, was she trying to tell him that she could do his job better than him?

"Honestly, I'm not trying to offend you or anything. I have better things to do." Adding some more irony to the conversation, she thought _If you want a fight, then you'll have it._

"If so, why haven't you left yet? Don't your people need you?"

"I care about my people as much as you care about yours!"

"Do you? Because last time you sacrificed two of your agents, and for what reason? They didn't even catch the unsub!"

 _It was that time they were outside the suspects house, watching it while they were in their cars, and she had ordered the two agents to enter the house and arrest him._

" _Only the two of them?" Hotch had asked._

" _They can handle it. If we send more people, he'll understand that we're after him and we'll never see him again" She was convinced this was the best way of action._

 _But it wasn't…_


	4. Response to review by ILR

**Response to review by ILR**

I know that it's strange for a director to work in a simple case, but I've created Sara Reese's character for another story a long time ago and I decided to use her exactly as she was. And yes, she doesn't really like others being in charge, but she has a special connection to the dead agent and she wanted to handle it personally.

Also, I love your idea! I'll have her and Emily talk about Emily being undercover with the CIA, and they can be friends.

Thanks very much for your review!


	5. Mixed feelings

Chapter 4- Mixed feelings

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

-Buddha

 _When they saw the two agents lying on the floor with a bullet to their chests, she said nothing. She knew she was wrong, but she wasn't willing to admit it, so she just turned around and left. Even though she didn't speak, on the inside she felt devastated. People had always told her she was a great leader, that one day she would become director, but the truth is that she had screwed up. She waited at the hospital all night, and the doctors informed her that one of the agents was dead. This made her feelings of guilt even worse. The other agent survived, and she stayed with him for a while._

" _I'm sorry" she whispered before leaving, knowing that she would never have the courage to say this if he wasn't unconscious._

 _Of course, Hotch never heard those words she said._

 _Then they had to find the unsub. They finally did, after two days of work and one new victim. They went to arrest him and he started running. Reese ran after him, and when she caught him, she made him regret the moment he shot her agents. She would have killed him if the FBI wasn't there to stop her._

"You have no right to judge my decisions, Hotchner. It's not like all your agents return home after every case."

This was enough to remind him of all those times he had to inform the family of an agent that their son or daughter had been killed, so she left him alone and went to the interrogation room.

She sat down and looked at the criminal straight in the eyes for some seconds without speaking.

"Tell me what happened when you attacked Lily Miller"

He told her the story in every detail, feeling no remorse as he described what he did to her body after he killed her. He had been interested in Lily, or Anne, when she visited him and told him all about her recent divorce, her parents' death, everything about her, which was just a way to make her cover more believable.

Anne Young was killed because of a lie.

Reese left the BAU headquarters and drove to her hotel. She was going to leave for Langley next morning. When she reached Hotch's house, she slowed down, thinking about knocking his door, then deciding he'd only tell her to leave. Did she hate him? When this case began, she'd say yes without even thinking of it, but now… She honestly didn't know. He was annoying, and she absolutely hated him being in charge, but...

Hotch saw her car and he'd swear that she slowed down. He thougt that he probably was wrong, Sara Reese would never care to knock his door. Did he hate her? Some days ago the answer would have been yes, however he saw her care for Anne and for Mandy, and this changed everything. _It's true, but she doesn't care about me_ he thought.

That's what the two of them thought, but even they can't always know everything. Because faith definitely had plans for those two, and as Gideon said, maybe there was something there.


	6. A good reason to stay

Chapter 5- A good reason to stay

If you're going through hell, keep going.

-Winston Churchill

Very early next morning Reese heard a knock on the door of her hotel room and she got up to answer, curious as to who it could be.

"Agent Gideon?" she asked, surprised.

"I wanted to ask you something. Perhaps you could stay for one more case with us, it's a very tricky one and we need as much help as we can get." This was just one of the reasons. There was also another one, which he couldn't tell her, but hopefully his little plan would make her (as well as someone else) smile for once.

"I'm supposed to return to Langley this morning. I have a lot to do there."

"A girl has been abducted and she was abused by her parents." Gideon said, knowing that the real problem was that Hotch would be in charge over her. It was obvious that she hated others being in charge, and she only came for the previous case because the victim was one of her agents. If she had nothing to gain, she wouldn't stay, so what he had to do was give her a reason to stay. He had done his homework on her past, and he knew she wouldn't resist helping on a case like this.

"I'm in. When are we leaving?"

"I've told the team to go to the airport, we're leaving as soon as we get there."

She got ready and they drove to the airport. When the team saw her, they were slightly surprised that she would join them on a case that had nothing to offer her. Hotch was the most surprised of them all. Last night, the only thing she looked like wanting to do was go away and never come back again. Well, at least she would help them on the case, because making her leave was certainly not an option.

They flew to a small town in Kansas, with a population of only 4.000 people.

"Sophia Noris, fifteen years old, didn't go to school today. Two girls went to her house after school to check if she was ok, but they found nobody there and called the police. They told the police that they were worried because two boys had been talking all week about finding Sophia before school today. Those boys had been bullying her for a very long time. However, when they were questioned, they said that they never saw the girl exit her house this morning. The family's car wasn't there, and the police assumed that the father was the one to abduct her." Gideon explained the case to them.

"If it's just a missing person case, why did they call us?" JJ interrupted.

"They found blood on her bed sheets."

"They hit her before leaving?"

"No. It wasn't that recent, it was there for much longer. She was abused."

"Practically, we don't even have an unsub. We already know who the criminal is" Hotch noted.

"Believe me when I say this makes him no less dangerous. We're talking about a professional fighter that got injured in fights, got drunk and beat his daughter and probably his wife."

When they landed, a policeman was waiting for them at the airport. He wanted to let them know that they had found the car abandoned in a nearby town.

The first thing they did when they arrived was go to the school. They'd ask the people there about the girl, and find as much information as they could on her and the parents. JJ and Reid met one of Sophia's professors while the rest of the team asked questions to the classmates and the rest of the teaching staff.

"She wasn't a very good student." the professor said. "She always sat at the back of the class, as far away from other students as she could."

"Did she speak to any of the children?" JJ asked.

"No. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard her voice." He spoke in an unusually calm manner, considering he was being asked questions about a missing girl.

"What can you tell us about her parents, mr. Roy?" Reid asked.

"I've seen them only a very few times. They don't pick her up after school, and they haven't ever asked me about her progress."

"And you never asked her if anything was wrong?"

"No. She wouldn't tell me even if I asked." he replied, looking like the teenager was the last thing he was concerned about.

"Maybe she wouldn't. But think about that: If you had asked, you could have saved this girl" JJ said before leaving.

"I don't understand why he's so insensitive!" she shouted when they left his office, disgusted by him. "We're talking about a girl that was abused by her parents! How could he not care?"

"Not all people are good, JJ."

"I know. It's just unfair that a young girl has to go through all this."

"We're here to help her. We are the ones that care."

"And Sara Reese, too. Why does she work with us?"

"I really don't know. Maybe she is concerned about Sophia, too."

"I don't think so, Spence. I aggree with Hotch. She's just a cold-hearted spy."

"I guess you're right."

The director of the CIA was talking to the two girls that went to Sophia's house.

"We went to Sophia's house because Mathew and Jonathan had been planning all week to go to her house today before school and wait for her. We knew that they would do very bad things to her." Daisy explained.

"Were you friends with Sophia?"

"No. She was alone all the time." Erica, the other girl, answered.

"Has she always been like that?"

"Well, no, she wasn't. I mean, yes, but until about half a year ago, she seemed like she was happy with that. Now, she always looks depressed."

"And how did you know where she lived?"

That's when the two girls started feeling uncomfortable, and it was obvious that they had a lot to hide. However, Erica looked only half as guilty as her friend. Reese could make a lot of predictions and easily find out which one was true, but she preferred to let them speak on their own.

"We…" Daisy started. She just couldn't pronounce the words.

"I'm not here to judge you. It's not my job to punish you for whatever you have done."

"Last year… Mathew and Jonathan had followed her to her house, and they told us to come… They wanted to impress us… And they called her names…"

"Did they hurt her?"

"Physicaly, no."

"It was a mistake." Daisy suddenly said. She had wanted to apologize ever since that happened, but she never had the courage. "We shouldn't have gone with them. We didn't know what they wanted to do."

"Don't apologize to me, Daisy. We'll bring Sophia back, and you'll say it to her. We'll bring her back thanks to you."

And she left the two girls alone.

The rest of the students said nothing new. Sophia was quiet, lonely, and never spoke to anyone. Then, the team gathered and went to the house. The police had already visited it, but they wanted to see it themselves.

It was a depressing place. Empty bottles were all around the floor of the dimly lit living room, the first room they saw when they entered.

"That's not good" Emily whispered.

"No, it's not" Reese aggreed. "It means it's a lot worse than it sounded at first."

Then they separated. Emily, JJ and Reid went to the girl's room. It was small, with no decoration at all, and there was only a bed, a wardrobe and a small desk with a chair. Everything she had was either black or gray.

The surprising thing, the thing that the police didn't pay much attention to, was the mother's room, the one Gideon, Hotch and Reese investigated. Maria and James Noris slept together, but she also had her personal space. There was a desk and a huge bookcase.

"Nothing is out of place" Hotch noticed. "She's organized."

"Look at her notes" Reese said. "Only a few words, not unnecessary details."

She saw that Gideon wasn't in the room. This means that somehow the two of them had ended up having to work together. Again. She'd say it was just a series of coincidences, but then again, she didn't believe in coincidences.

"Most of her books are maths books. Advanced ones."

"What is her job?"

"Waitress. But I'd say she seems much cleverer than an average waitress."

"So she had her personal space, and had the chance to spend time alone and work on all this stuff… It means that James didn't abuse her."

"No, he didn't. Because while he started to lose more and more battles, she started to become stronger." He showed her a black belt he found in one of Maria's drawers.

Their next stop was the police station. They went to the conference room to discuss the profile and tell each other about the things they had discovered in the house.

"Our unsub is not the father" Hotch announced "We believe it's Maria that commited the crime, because she's highly intelligent and organized, while James doesn't have the abilities to think of such a plan, let alone do it."

Suddenly, a policeman stormed into the room. "James Noris was found unconscious in an alley" he informed them. "We've brought him here."

"Lead me to him" Hotch ordered. Reese followed right behind him.

"Oh, and…" he turned to the team. "Don't call him "father". He doesn't deserve it"

The man was in an interrogation room. He had bruises all over his face, a broken nose, his clothes were torn and he probably hadn't taken a shower in the last month.

"I want to know exactly what happened. Where is your wife and Sophia?" Hotch demanded, looking straight into his eyes.

 _He cares much more about this girl than about any other case._ Reese noticed. _He almost looks like he actually feels something._

"She hit me and left me there!" he shouted.

"Your wife hit you? Why?"

"I don't know!"

"I bet you do" Reese continued the interrogation.

"They won't make him talk." Emily said. She and the rest of the team were watching the interrogation. "He's too drunk to even understand what they're asking him"

"I bet that, in five minutes, we'll have his confession" Morgan disaggreed.

"If Hotch and Reese manage to work together."

Five minutes later, Noris had told them the whole story. He was in the same room with Aaron Hotchner and Sara Reese, it was more than predictable that Morgan would be the one to win the bet. James Noris didn't stand a chance against those two.

By the way, those two worked together pretty well, and even they themselves were surprised. They didn't know it then, but each of them had much more in common to the girl than the other one imagined.


	7. One step ahead

Chapter 6- One step ahead

There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy waking hours more.

-Woody Allen

According to James Noris, his wife had forced him to help her kidnap Sophia, but when he stopped being useful, she just left him in that dark alley and continued on her own. They left their house yesterday in the evening. Then they wanted to find out what made her want to run away. He said that half an hour before they left, she had received a phone call and that she was very angry afterwards.

As he didn't know who it was on the phone, they called Garcia and asked her to find all the phone calls Maria Noris had received between 16:00 and 18:00 yesterday. There weren't many, only one or two from work.

"Wait, I may have found something." Garcia said. "At 17:39, she received a phone call from a phone registered to Andrew Bryan. He's the only one on the list that's not a colleague."

"Thanks, baby girl." Morgan said to her and hung up.

"Bryan…" Reese tried to remember where she had heard that name before. "Daisy Bryan. The girl that went to Sophia's house. He's her father."

"Hotch, Reese, come with me." Gideon ordered. "We're going to pay the Bryans a quick visit."

They found Daisy alone at her house. She had just come home from school.

"Did you speak on the phone with Sophia's mother yesterday?" Hotch asked.

"Yes. I wanted to tell her what the boys were going to do to her daughter, but she started screaming when I finished my sentence."

"Why didn't you tell us before?"

"Well… I…"

"Daisy?" Reese said, wanting to catch the girl's attention. "I told you before that our job is not to judge you. We won't tell anyone about this, ok?"

Daisy nodded. "It was… It was Erica. When she saw you come, she told me that you were with the FBI and that I shouldn't tell you I wanted to help Sophia."

"Why is that?" Hotch continued.

"Because nobody likes Sophia, and we shouldn't help her. If we do, they'll bully us, too."

"So, your friend actually enjoyed what the boys did to Sophia, right?"

"Yes." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"But she came with me to Sophia's house when I told her I was worried. Is she a bad person?" she asked Reese after the other two agents had left.

"Nobody is always bad, and nobody is always good. Erica was just confused, and she was afraid of what your classmates would to to her if she helped. People are not themselves when they are afraid, Daisy."

They had found the stresser. The next thing they had to do was talk to Maria's coleagues and acquaintances and see if there was a place where she felt safe, a place where she could be hiding now. Meanwhile, Penelope was constantly checking if Maria had used her credit card or booked any tickets, so that they could locate her.

Emily and Morgan went to the restaurant where Maria Noris was working.

"How long had she been working here, mr. Green?" Emily asked the owner.

"Three years. She's been here more than any other staff member."

"How would you describe her?"

"She was organized. She wanted everything in place and she became annoyed when the other waitresses left something out of place. She also had a smart answer to every question and could solve mathematical problems in the blink of an eye. I always wondered why she wasted her time doing such a job."

"Did you ever ask her?"

"Yes. She said there were not many opportunities in this small town but she didn't want to leave her family, so she decided to stay."

"Did she have any violent outbursts?"

"Occasionally, yes. That started only recently, though. About six months ago."

"Why didn't you fire her?"

"Look, she's found a solution to almost all the economical problems I was having with the restaurant. She's saved me a lot of time, I can't afford to lose her."

"She became dangerous when she was angry." Stella, a waitress, told Morgan. She was only working for mr. Green for two months. "So much that we were afraid of her."

"What did she do?"

"Mostly, she just kept shouting until she had no more energy left. There were also those times that she slapped us."

"Did you tell your boss?"

"No. She was his favorite, and we all knew that he would never fire her."

After learning all they needed, the two agents left the restaurant and drove back to the police station to meet the rest of the team and tell them about their new theory. Unfortunately, nobody at the restaurant was able to tell them if there was a place where Maria could be hiding. They hoped their colleagues had more luck.

The woman had no real friends. As with any other good thing that happened to the family, hanging out with friends stopped six months ago. Reid and Gideon went to Samantha Clark's house. She used to be friends with Maria.

"It's been a very long time since I last spoke to her." She was surprised that someone would asked her about her ex- best friend.

"I know. We just want to know if you can think of any place that she could be hiding. Any place where she felt safe."

"When we were friends, she always talked about a house in the middle of the forest. She said nobody went there, and that, if she decided to go there, nobody would ever find her."

Gideon thanked her and they left.

"We think that the abuse began only about six months ago. Before that, they were a normal family." Morgan said.

"What makes you think that?"

"First of all, the two girls from Sophia's school said that she began looking depressed half a year ago. Then, Maria's boss said that she began hitting the waitresses at about the same period of time. And last but not least, I called Garcia and she confirmed that this period of time was also the period when James started losing more and more fights."

"So, Maria loved her husband." Hotch concluded. "And even though he started drinking, she just couldn't leave."

"And she became violent so that she could protect herself." Reese added. "She didn't want to leave, but she didn't want to feel vulnerable, either."

"She hit her daughter because of that? It's irrational." JJ commented.

"It is." Reid aggreed. "After James started losing, nothing his wife did was rational."

"This means he was her first stresser." Emily observed. "The one that made her start the abuse."

Then, Reid and Gideon told them about the house in the forest, and they had Penelope locate it. It was near the city where the family's car was. They went there, thinking that this case was finally over. But it wasn't.

There was a note on the table.

 _-You thought you'd catch me so easily? Well, no, you won't. You see, agents, I'm always one step ahead.-_

"She's not here. Then she's out of town." Hotch said. "Because if she was still in this small town, we would have found her."

"Where could she be?" Emily wondered.

Then, they heard Morgan's phone ringing. It was Garcia.

"Guys… I have bad news. Maria Noris has left the town an hour ago. She's flying to Las Vegas."

"I told you to check every five minutes, Garcia!" Gideon was very angry. "How could you have missed it?"

"Because the ticket wasn't booked by Maria. It was booked by her best friend, Samantha."


	8. Some hope for the broken hearts

Chapter 7- Some hope for the broken hearts

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

-Albert Einstein

Hotch, Emily, Reese and Gideon went to Miami while the other three members of the team went to arrest Samantha Clark. They brought her to the police station and put her in an interrogation room.

"Why did you help Maria?" Reid asked. "We told you that she was dangerous and that she had to be caught."

"She's my best friend."

"No, she isn't. Not anymore." JJ said. She knew there had to be another reason.

Samantha remained silent.

"If you tell us all the information we need, we can help you spend less years in prison." Morgan said. This works most of the times.

"Fine." Samantha finally gave up after five minutes. "She came to my house two hours before you came and asked me to book two tickets for her. She gave me 5.000 $. I couldn't resist, I lost my job recently and I owe money…"

"Did she have Sophia with her?"

"Yes. The girl didn't talk, I assumed Maria had threatened her, and when I saw the bruises on her face, I was scared. I thought she'd do the same to me if I refused to help her." The fear in the woman's voice was genuine.

"Did she say where she was going?"

"She didn't, but her mother lives in Las Vegas. Maybe she'll go there. And she was the one that told me to tell you to go to the house in the forest."

"Why?" Reid asked.

"She said she wanted to play with you, because she thought that she was better."

"Well, she isn't" Morgan muttered under his breath.

"Agents?" Samantha remembered something important. "When we were friends, she told me she was abused by her parents."

"What are we supposed to do with her? Will we help her?" JJ asked her colleagues.

"She just needed the money. And she was scared. She had no other choice." Reid said.

"We always have a choice, Reid." Morgan disaggreed. "She just chose what was best for her"

"We can't blame her, can we?"

"I guess we can't. I think I would have done the same."

"Seing a girl in that condition could scare even the bravest of us." JJ added.

The other four agents were already in Las Vegas when Reid called them to say that Maria could be hiding at her mother's appartment. They went straight there.

"Maria Noris? FBI!" they shouted.

There was no answer but they could hear Sophia screaming. Hotch knocked the door open with a kick.

They saw Maria hitting her daughter. The moment she saw them enter the house, Maria took a gun from the table next to her and pointed it at them.

"Put the gun down, Maria." Hotch demanded.

Realizing that there were four guns pointed at her, Maria had to find another way to get rid of them. So she turned around and pointed the gun at her daughter.

"If you don't put yor guns down, I'll kill her."

"Put it down. Now!" he repeated, without lowering his gun.

"No way"

"Look, I know your childhood wasn't ideal, but you can't hide behind this forever. Hitting your daughter won't make you feel any better."

"You don't know what it feels like!"

"Yes, I do"

Gideon and Emily knew what that meant. For Sara Reese, however, those three words changed everything she'd ever thought about that man. They'd been through the same difficulties in their childhood and, even though this didn't mean she instantly adored him, it meant something had changed. She still thought he was annoying, but at least now there was something they had in common.

They disarmed her after a while and they arrested her immediately. It looks like she was affected by what Hotch had said. Reese went straight to the girl. She didn't care about the arrest, she knew that the other three agents could do it without her.

"Sophia? My name is Sara Reese. I'm here to help you."

Until then, the girl had her face burried in her hands. When she heard someone call her name, she looked up to see who it was. Reese gave Sophia her hand to help her get up. The girl just kept staring at the hand, without believing that someone actually wanted to help her.

"I won't hurt you. I promise."

When she saw that Sophia didn't trust her, she put her gun on the floor and kicked it away before kneeling next to her. The girl started crying and Reese sat there with her, without talking, until Sophia finally took the hand and let the director of the CIA help her.

On their way back to Quantico, Gideon and Hotch talked about something that Emily had absolutely no interest in, so she went and sat next to Reese, who was alone, as far away from the others as she could.

"Agent Prentiss?" She didn't expect one of the FBI agents to come and speak with her about something else apart from work. It was quite clear that they didn't really like her.

"Can I sit? I want to ask you something."

"Of course."

"Well… Ever since you came, I've been wondering why you came. I mean, I used to work for the CIA, and none of my superiors cared so much about every single agent."

 _So she was a CIA agent_ Reese thought. _Interesting._

"Nothing has changed since you left. I wouldn't have come if it was any other agent. It was just that my connection with Anne was special, but that's a long story."

"If you want to tell me, I have time to hear it."

"Ok then… Before I became director, I was undercover in Germany with her. It was her first time and she was chosen because she was very good at her job. We lived together for 19 months, and I taught her everything I knew. That's why I called Hotchner right after I was informed that she was dead and that you were investigating her case."

"I never really kept in touch with any of my partners, and that's sad."

"That was the case with all of my partners, too. Anne was actually the only colleague I've ever had a personal relationship with."

"That was the thing I didn't like about this job. After a while, it makes you cold, apathetic."

"If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you"

"So why do you keep doing this job?"

"I guess I've been gazing too long into the abyss that I can no longer stop."


	9. Yes, there's something there

Chapter 8- Yes, there's something there

The best kiss is the one that has been exchanged a thousand times between the eyes before it reaches the lips.

-Ann Beasley

The two women spent a lot of time talking about their experiences as spies for the CIA. When Emily asked Reese why she cared so much about Sophia, she avoided the question. The reason was too personal to share with someone she was only talking half an hour with, and it wasn't like her to open up to people. It wasn't that she didn't like Emily. She did, but it was too soon to call her a friend.

When their private jet landed, Reese gave Emily a piece of paper.

"Give this to agent Garcia." she just said, leaving Emily there to stare at prince William's phone number.

Sara turned around to look at her. "What? I just made it easier for her. I'm sure that she'd think of another way, if I didn't help her."

"She's getting too passionate sometimes."

"That's not bad."

Instead of leaving immediately, Reese went to the BAU headquarters first. She had one more thing to do there before returning to Langley, and returning was one thing that could wait until next morning.

She knocked the door of Hotch's office, and he told her to come in.

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to give you my report on the previous case." she said and left it on his desk.

"Anything else?"

He was now facing her, standing only a few inches away from her. Their faces got even closer, so much that they could hear each other's breath. They looked into each other's eyes…

And then there was a knock on the door. Morgan came in and wanted to speak to Hotch, so Reese left and went to her hotel room to sleep for the night.

She closed her eyes but she found it impossible to sleep. She kept staring at the ceiling, thinking how stupid it was to think that Hotch would ever feel something else for her apart from hate. Then again, she thought that life is all about taking risks, and she decided to risk it.

Fifteen minutes later, she was outside his house, ringing his doorbell. He opened the door and saw her standing there.

"What do you want?"

For a moment she thought of just turning around and leaving, but then she told herself that she had been waiting for eight years to do this, and she took a step forward, ignoring his slightly hostile attitude.

"I think we were in the middle of something when agent Morgan knocked the door."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her. Before he could realize what happened, their lips were touching. It was the last thing he ever expected her to do, and he even thought of breaking the kiss, but, even though he'd never admit it, he had been waiting for eight years to do this.

They went into the house and started walking to the bedroom. Five minutes later, they were lying in Hotch's bed.

"I want to ask you something" he said. "Why did you come to work with us? Don't you hate being told what to do?"

"I do. But sometimes there are things that are more important that what we want. Agent Young was one of those things."

"Why is that?"

She told him the same story she had earlier told Emily.

"I see. Still, this doesn't explain why you stayed for the second case."

 _There comes this question again_ she said to herself.

"Remember when you said that you knew how Maria felt? Well, I do, too."

He now understood why it was impossible for her to keep her expression neutral when she was around tortured children, and why it was the only kind of case that seemed to affect her. It seemed that they had much more in common than they thought, and he felt happy that he didn't break the kiss.

"And, since I know you wonder where the scar under my eye came from… Yes, John Reese gave it to me."

"John Reese? Your father?"

"I've never called him father. He doesn't deserve it."

After that, they started another conversation. They had seen enough suffering during the last few days, and this wasn't the right time to talk about the painful details of their childhood. It was time to talk about happy things, because Gideon was right: his plan to keep Sara Reese with them for another case would make both her and Hotch smile.

So there they were, Aaron Hotchner and Sara Reese finally admitting their feelings for each other. Well, it was true that, if they ever worked together again, they'd argue. He still thought that she was cold and abrupt and everything, and she'd never change. She still thought he could get very annoying. Did they hate each other? No. They just had flaws, but this wasn't hate. Because, after all, there really was something there.

-The end-

This was the final chapter. I hope you enjoyed! There will be a sequel soon, so stay close. Thanks again to everyone that favorited and followed!


End file.
